Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Oil Drips: Amused Detachment Edition

I only caught bits and pieces of Game 1, but last night I caught most of Game 2. Very entertaining, I'd say.

**Le GG had at least four shifts in the 3rd period that were better than a single shift I've seen from Rem Murray in the entire playoffs.

**One of the colour guys I heard a lot this season--McGuire? Ryan Walter?--was obsessive about remarking on broken sticks while penalty killing, especially centres who broke them on faceoffs. I wonder if that delightful 5-on-1 sequence will actually prompt any NHL coaches to take Colour Guy's advice and have their PK play with wooden sticks. (If wood is even 1% more durable, it would seem to be a no-brainer, certainly for 3-on-5 situations).

**If there's one observation that hasn't yet been made in support of Pronger's value to the Oil (hard to believe!), it's that for the entire year, his partner has looked like Edmonton's 2nd best defenseman.

I made a sarcastic comment in a thread back in October to the effect that "Jay Feaster wasn't going to be offering Brad Richards for MAB"; after Bergeron had spent a month or two alongside Pronger, it wasn't obvious at all that it would be a good deal for the Oilers. Spacek looked like Lowe's Steal of the Century when he was rolling next to the Orbs; lately, away from Pronger, he looks more like a late '90s-model Phil Housley, c/w "I wonder if he'll get up from that hit?" feature.

And I hope I'm not accused of foggy hindsight when I say that at times this season, Jason Smith looked like the game had just about passed him by. He was a step slow too often. Now he's playing with Pronger, and the estimable Lowetide spitballs on how MacT gets this thing turned around and says

Maybe they split the Pronger-Smith tandem to give a little more zip to the second group.

How's that whole Triumphant thing going, anyway? I considered changing the tag back to "Comments", but then decided to leave it as a testament to Karma Destruction. If it wasn't for this whole bluemile.ca dealy, that might really stand out...

(It seems like every Oiler fan made the point about hubris, but none actually heeded it.)

What I'm enjoying is how quickly the Oil Faithful have turned and eaten their young. A couple of losses to a good team in their rink and the bandwagon is headed straight for the highest bridge so everyone can jump off.

Uh....where? I personally think the Oilers are doing great and I, for one, am of the belief, as an Oilers faithful, that they'll triump over this minor setback. If they can lose two games in a row they can win two games in a row.

Rexall Place will be rocking and provide them the motivation while taking steam out of san jose. San Jose will stop believing their hype and the Oilers will prevail.

Game 4 is going to be the best and be a blow out. I'll be there and I'm there good luck charm. I'll bring all the good karma from the city of vancouver and the hopes and dreams of 2010 and victory will be ours.

I'm leery of giving Matt a tonne of credit here, especially since the Pronger effect on his d-partner has been mentioned a few times on the HF board.

First of all, Spacek looked bad in Game 1, but I thought he looked fine in Game 2. I don't agree that he's been awful since moved from Pronger's side. He's the same player, it's just now that he's hemmed in his own end all the time with no puck support from the forwards.

I don't recall seeing a letdown from Jason Smith earlier this year and I don't think he's dramatically better now.

Basically, the only one that fits the bill here in my opinion is Bergeron based on the Oilers hockey that I've been watching. Yeah, he seems much better when he's playing with Pronger - at least it seems like more than the boost that everyone else gets.

Being leery of giving me credit is certainly wise (though you'll have to take my word for it that I don't hang out on the HFBoards). I'm willing to defer to your judgement on Spacek too, though it seems to me that he was getting burned a lot in the Detroit series too.

As for Gator, it's my own two eyes only, but I'll stand by my old observations wholeheartedly.

The Flames fans took some lumps for getting silenced in period 2 of game 7. I don't think it is fair. It's not that they did not want the guys to win -- they did. They just all fell asleep watching that game.

It will be interesting to see how much hollering/meat throwing goes on tonight if the Oilers are down a goal and being outshot again tonight.